Chinglish example #6

Chinglish: Have to hurry, was also chong chong to.

Suggested proper English: It is very difficult to give an accurate translation. However the meaning is “You come here in a hurry, but make sure you flush it after you have done your business.” “Chong chong” here means flush it with water. This signage appears in a public toilet.

Chinglish example #7

Chinglish: ROMM

Suggested proper English: ROOM or ACCOMMODATION

Chinglish example #8

Chinglish: Deformed men’s toilet (there is another one for women: Deformed women’s toilet!)

Suggested proper English: Toilet For Disabled Men

Chinglish example #9

Chinglish: To restraint AIDS – Prevention is crucial (looks OK but not perfect)

Suggested proper English: Stop spreading of AIDS by prevention

Chinglish: Route of infection

Suggested proper English: AIDS can be spread by

Chinglish: spread by the sexual contact between male-female and man sex with man

Suggested proper English: spread by sexual contact between man and woman or between male homosexuals

Chinglish: Using needing instruments blood without test or blood products without test will infect

Hey Teh Tarik Kakis: it has been more than a month since I last posted here.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit China on leisure and came across some very funny English wordings used by the local Chinese in their signage and printed literature.

What is Chinglish?

From Wikipedia: Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language.The term “Chinglish” is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations. Other terms used to described the phenomenon include “Chinese English”, “China English”, and “Sinicized English”.The degree to which a Chinese variety of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed.

Most of the English wordings used in the signage or written literature are either direct translations and most of the time it is full of grammatical errors. To make things worse it will make your laugh until “tears also come out” [is this Chinglish?].

Chinglish example #1

Chinglish: To be on your safety, please don’t climb over the rails.

Suggested proper English: For you own safety, please do not climb over the rails.

Chinglish example #2

Chinglish: Floor have water, be careful of slip.

Suggested proper English: Floor is wet. Be careful!

Chinglish example #3

Chinglish:

Prevent AIDS I have a condom

To care for your healthy and safty please:

Persist to use condom while sex.

Suggested proper English:

Prevent AIDS – Use A Condom (this is supposed to be a slogan)

For your health and safety, insist on using a condom when making love.

[Or you have a better suggestions?]

Chinglish example #4

Chinglish: Couldn’t drink water!!! [This is photographed near the water tap in the wash room]

Suggested proper English: Water Is Not For Drinking!

Chinglish example #5

Chinglish:

Room to room: touch 6 + the room number

Local call: Touch 9 + the phone number

Suggested proper English:

Room to room: Press (or dial) 6 + room number

Local call: Press 9 (or dial) + local phone number

[There is no touch screen, so touching the buttons has no effect!]

My two cents

The reasons for such errors are basically

1. English is not widely taught and spoken in schools and in their day to day dealings (and therefore is not taught properly as well)

2. Erroneous dictionary listings

3. Wrong word order

4. Problems of direct translation

Have you have enough laughs so far? In the next post, I shall put up more funny photos and I guarantee you would laugh until you drop!

Why this title?

Here is how the story goes. Last Monday, I posted the following in my Facebook wall:

TehTarikKaki (me):“Mentally very very tired. Monday blues…just half a day gone already so stressful. “Hopefully less stressful” in next days and weeks.”

KY (one of my FB friend):”I thought life is like a box of chocolate?”

TehTarikKaki (me):“chocolate? yeah, sweet and sticky and got stuck in every lubangs (spaces) in between my teeth. I need a kopi o now kau kau one (black strong coffee). Teh tarik kurang manis also ok”

I did some research on the phrase “life is like a box of chocolates” which I heard many times but the actual meaning was not fully understood. So what does “life is like a box of chocolates” means?

Forrest Gump

This famous quote actually came from a 1994 award winning movie “Forrest Gump” which was starred by Tom Hanks. The line as spoken by Forrest Gump, reads in the script as follows:

“I could eat about a million and a half of these. My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.'”

Life is like a box of chocolates

The most common interpretations of this phrase are:

A box of chocolates contains many different flavours that you normally couldn’t identify unless it is specified in the label. If chosen randomly, you don’t know what flavour you are going to get. Thus, like life, your choice of chocolates could bring surprising results

You will never know what you are going to get in life

Life is like a box of chocolates – full of nuts!

This means that there is always something new and a lot of it

Do you agree with this interpretation? Actually I am quite agreeable with the above interpretation. My notion is life is like a cup of coffee, you need to embrace it fully and it is also like a box of chocolates, it is full of surprises or uncertainties.

What did my Facebook friends say?

Few days ago, I posted the following in my wall in Facebook:

TehTarikKaki (me): ”Life Is like a Box of Chocolates… You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get! Agreed? Yes or No? LIKE?”

Many LIKEd the post and I received 5 comments as below:

WLL: ”u mean those with filling inside? black magic types..cherry, almond, liquor, coconut? i prefer dark choc. so life is more like dark chocolate..its bitter sweet and u will grow to like it more and more..”

KWS: “Like, but not really agree .. Chocolate too sweet lah.. many things in life is better than chocolate lah.. why nota box of RM100 notes? can do many things..”

TCH: “Life is just like a ‘Present’ or a gift which wrap with beautiful wrapping paper. We won’t know it without open the ‘Present’ except we open it n see it by our self…BTW, I love white chocolate, chocolate with almond and date from middle east, chocolate with hazelnut…yummy……..: D”

DHK: “chocolates come with different size and shape and you will only know what is inside when you bite it and taste it,you may like it or dislike it”

EY: “Have you tried putting a piece of chocolate into a cup of coffee? It melted n blended into it. That is life.”

TehTarikKaki (me): “EY, I have yet to try it. Will do it soon!”

My surprises in life

There are many surprises (at least something you never expect or could never imagine that will happen) in your life. And there are two things which are certain in life i.e. death and taxes (unless you live in a tax-free country like Brunei). All other are all uncertainties. My example “little” and “big” surprise are:

I do not practice my profession for a living now (after the economic crisis)

I regularly “met” or “reconnected” with long lost friends in Facebook, which I have not met for 20 or even 30 years

The biggest surprise of all today is I receive a box of chocolates as a gift from a dear friend! I have yet to open the box and really do not know what are inside the box. Big surprise to me but warm at heart. Here is the album:

My two cents

To many life seems to be randomness, lack of order or I would rather call it uncertainties. For example, on a Monday morning before you go out of your house, there is no way for you to know before hand whether the Monday is going to be a blue Monday!

A dear friend told me: “Everyday is just a day, it is made blue or red or green or yellow or white or black or purple…by yourself. Why not make it colourful like a rainbow with your talent for yourself and others?”

This should be the mind set we adopt everyday in facing the world as life is like a box of chocolates. When you open a box of chocolates, there are rows of non-differentiated or sometimes different design of chocolates. They might or might not look the same, and yet you know some are filled with cream, some with caramel and some with coconut. When you pick up one chocolate, you never know what will happen! Once you picked up one chocolate, think: “Have you tried putting a piece of chocolate into a cup of coffee? It melted n blended into it. That is life.”

Personally I have been drinking coffee for years. My morning black coffee (with some sugar) is my morning fix, without which I would feel very uncomfortable. I asked around and people said it is addiction. I agree totally.

Motivational video

I came across a motivational video with the same title of this blog in YouTube, which I “reproduced” below.

One of the best motivation videos I have watched. It is uplifting.

If you care to think for a moment, do you like the coffee or the cup containing the coffee?? I am going to tell you a real story:

Beautiful cups

My wife bought some cups the other day, so each family member can have one. There are many designs; true enough my children were rushing to choose the “better” looking ones. I too, chose the same one which my daughter was also interested. Being a kind father, I let go the one to her. And she is so happy.

Do you know which is my favourite cup? Is the cup more important or the coffee more important? If there is no cup, there is “no coffee”. Does the coffee taste better when it is in a more “beautiful” cup or “better looking” cup?

In my opinion, the various cups represent not only the mundane things in life such as position in society, money you have, car that you drive, your house, your fame, etc.

Being worldly, almost everyone of us would want to possess the best things in our life. But do the best physical things in life constitute a major part of our life?

There is more to the cups. The essence is in the coffee itself. We know that different processes and ingredients would produce different kinds of coffee. That’s where each and everyone of us is different!

Some like coffee without sugar or milk, some like lots of milk or sugar and some like a mixture of sugar and milk.

However, life is full of happiness and sufferings. We add different amount of sugar or milk to make the bitter coffee more drinkable.

Life is like a cup of coffee as coffee itself is so additive. I vow that a day without my morning coffee is something I cannot live with. So does it means that life is so additive that nobody is willing to give up life?

Life is like a cup of coffee. Do you know how to enjoy your cup of coffee other than enjoying the beauty of the cup containing the coffee? To live life to the fullest, you ought to sip and smell the aroma of the coffee when savouring every sip of it. That means to say to enjoy life, you must enjoy everyday of your life and every part of your life.

Life is like a cup of coffee. Some say coffee tastes best when it is hot, freshly brewed. This is so true that when your career, job, fame or other parts of your life is “hot” you truly enjoy your life.

Life is like a cup of coffee. Some people like to drink coffee alone some like to drink it with a group of friends.

My two cents

My teh tarik kaki friends, isn’t it true that if your cup containing the coffee is not even beautiful but if the coffee is brewed just hot with the correct aroma, it will taste very very very nice? Go for your life and embrace it fully just like how you would sip your favourite coffee. If the cup is nice, why not? If the cup is not that beautiful, then do your best to brew the coffee to the best of your ability!

Spiritual Story by Unknown

“A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.”

In the first blog post of “How to rein­vent life after 40, 50, 60? Part 1”, I touched on why we should rein­vent our life after 40, 50 or 60.

In the sec­ond blog post of “How to rein­vent life after 40, 50, 60? Part 2”, phys­i­cal health and rela­tion­ship were dis­cussed.

In the third blog post of “How to rein­vent life after 40, 50, 60? Part 3”, mental/spiritual being aspect wasdis­cussed.

In this blog, I shall go into the 4th account of our life accounts, i.e. actual money in the bank.

Is money everything or everything is money?

Unless you are a millionaire or billionaire by the time you are 40,50 or 60 you would most probably would like to look seriously into your finances perhaps even before you reach 40.

I once asked a close of my diamond bachelor friend how and who is going to take care of his life after retirement say when he turn 70 or 80.

Nonchalantly he replied, ”Let’s cross the bridge when the time comes.”

I pressed further,”How man brother?”

Then he said, ”My brothers or sisters will take care when I am old or you all [his close friends is what he means] would take care-lah.”

In my heart I was thinking by the time you are over 60, your brothers and sisters or close friends would also be of the same age group. They would face the same set of problems as you do. Will they able to help you?

That’s where you need to prepare how to go through your “old age”, plan well in advance, especially with regards to your actual money in the bank.

You may soon realize everything needs money especially when you get old and your earning capacity or ability has diminished or expired.

Different concerns for different age groups

Generally people entering 40, 50 or 60s would need to take care of the following issues which would be of great concern:

1) Children’s education – source of funds

2) Loans and mode of repayment

3) Health and medical care

4) Retirement funds

If you are married and have children, how are you going to finance your children’s education especially those who want to send them overseas to reputable universities?Unless your children can get a part or full scholarship to study overseas or locally, chances are you have to put aside some form of education fund when the children are born. It is better to plan early. Or else you might have to work or slog through your 50s or 60s.

As cost of housing or cost of home ownership is going up and up every year, some would be forced to stretch their loans (housing, car, personal etc.) to longer periods, thus delaying the retirement age and naturally delaying more gratification. Some might have to work out the loans repayment that is manageable. Refinance as one of the options, if necessary. However, don’t take unnecessary risk with rumours of high returns.

Another aspect whose cost is ballooning year after year is the health and medical care. The most logical solution is to have a basket of medical insurances from good and reputable insurance companies at an early age, as early as your first job.

The other aspect is to keep yourself as healthy as possible to avoid or delay high medical costs.

Similarly planning a good retirement fund (be it savings in your country’s compulsory retirement fund or own savings or other forms of investments) should be done as early as possible (best is starting form your first employment).

My personal recommendation is consult your personal financial consultant or those who are well verse in these areas.

while waiting for someone to turn up for an appointment or teh tarik session?

What are your reactions and what would you do in response to such SMSes?

Different connotations for different people

In Malaysia, “on the way” could mean different things for different peoples, depending on situations and the relationship of the parties involved.

Let me give you a few examples.

Example One (management meeting in a company)

I was working for a big local corporate company with many headcounts and managers. In one of the monthly management meetings, the boss was asking, “Where is Mr IOTW?”

The secretary said, “Mr IOTW is on the way. I called him just now. He said he is on the way.”

So matters which needed Mr IOTW’s clarification were skipped and the meeting went on to discuss other things.

By the time Mr IOTW came it was already 2 hours past.

Example Two (teh tarik/yum cha session with a teh tarik kaki)

One day I was waiting for a friend in OldTown Whitecoffee kopitiam for a yum cha session. The appointment was fixed a week ago and was reminded again by SMS one hour before the actual time.

Fifteen minutes had passed and my friend had yet to appear. Thinking that he might have forgotten the appointment, I sent an SMS, “Are you coming?”

“I’m OTW” was the reply.

So I waited and waited. But again 15 minutes had passed. This time I called his mobilephone, “Brother, where are you now”?

He answered, ”In the car, on the way.”

Finally he came 15 minutes later, which means he was late for 45 minutes!

He apologized profusely the moment he arrived, “When you called me just now, I was at the car park about to start the journey…” OMB!

Example Three (project management)

Two business associates were discussing on ways to complement each other’s business by exploring to have some kind of joint project, with each of them writing his own proposal. The project was not urgent and no time frame was fixed.

After two months in one of the meetings, Businessman A asked Businessman B, “Friend, where is your proposal we are talking about two months ago?”

Businessman B answered,”Argh, totally forgotten! OK, on the way, on the way.”

A couple of months have passed neither Businessman A nor Businessman B remember that they have a project to embark on. And nothing happens!

My two cents

In Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and some other South east Asian countries, punctuality and time management could be a challenge to many.

In my opinion when somebody tell you he is OTW (on the way) or the project is on the way, it could means many things:

1. Not even started the journey (anyhow it is going to be on the way)
2. Really on the way BUT it could take minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years
3. Could mean he is still searching for parking place after arrival
4. Perhaps he will call minutes later, he would not be able to make it after all
5. Better get prepared he might not turn up at all

To me whenever I receive an OTW sms. It means: I’m gonna be late, expect that please!

So the next time you receive an OTW sms or you hear the words “I’m on the way”, the best bet is to double confirm with the other party where is he exactly and ask him how much longer he needs in order to arrive. In this way, you could better manage your time more effectively.

In the first blog post of “How to reinvent life after 40, 50, 60? Part 1”, I touched on why we should rein­vent our life after 40, 50 or 60.

In the second blog post of “How to reinvent life after 40, 50, 60? Part 2”, physical health and relationship were discussed.

In this blog, I shall go into the third account of our life accounts, i.e. mental/spiritual being.

Before we delve into how to cultivate good mental being, it should be proper to know that there are eight worldly conditions which we experience on a day-to-day basis:

Gain and loss

Fame and ill-fame

Praise and blame

Happiness and pain

We live in a world of duality and before we reach 40, 50 or 60, we might have experienced some kind of gain or loss. Do you remember how do you feel when you get a fat bonus? But then how do you feel when you lose something, for example some money in stock market? It is the same when one day you become famous and another when you become infamous?

We feel very happy when someone praises us. What if when you are being blamed? We feel elated when praised but depressed when blamed.

Getting what you want is sure happiness and what are the pains in life? Old age, sickness, separation form loved ones, death and not getting what you want are the pains of life.

The above four sets of worldly conditions are like our shadows, following us everywhere we go! We should constantly reflect on them to build up our mental strength and cope much better when they come again. Like the natural 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter, they will pass as well. Learn not to be overwhelmed and get sucked into whirlwind of these conditions.

As you enter middle age, you could have a fair share of the above conditions in one way or another. But are you well prepared to face them again in life after 40, 50 or 60s?

Generally there are two types of people: those with a religion and those without a religion. However, how best you cope with life after 40, 50, or 60 MENTALLY is such an important aspect that many often overlook.

With or without religion, how a person choose to react to the 8 conditions will determine your quality of life in middle age, at least mentally.

My opinion is in order to cultivate our spiritual being we could do things that purify our mind (or calm our mind), do a lot of good deeds (like donating to charity, helping those unfortunate ones) and avoid doing evil things (cheating, stealing, bad-mouthing people, etc.)

I would like to end this blog with a quote from HH Dalai Lama:

“Spiritual practice is difficult in the beginning. You wonder how on earth you can ever do it. But as you get used to it, the practice gradually becomes easier. Do not be too stubborn or push yourself too hard. If you practice in accord with your individual capacity, little by little you will find more pleasure and joy in it. As you gain inner strength, your positive actions will gain in profundity and scope.”
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In the last blog post, I touched on why we should reinvent our life after 40, 50 or 60. Today I would go into the nitty-gritty on various ways to reinvent life after 40, 50 or 60.

How to reinvent life?

In my opinion, you have to divide your life into four accounts, i.e.

Account 1 – physical health

Account 2 – relationship

Account 3 – mental/spiritual being

Account 4 – actual money in your bank

Each account is important. But before we go into the details I would like to start off with the right mindset.

Right mindset

First we must acknowledge that aging is mandatory irrespective of your race, sex, position in society. Aging is a biological process where our body cells will one day die completely as time goes by. Soon after birth, every human is getting older each day, getting sick occasionally and for most people sickness becomes synonyms with old age. And eventually we breathe our last breath and we call it death!

So aging is compulsory but growing old is really optional. Most important of all is to have a positive and optimistic mindset when you are entering 40s, 50s or 60s. You age is just a number attached to the biological process of your body but your mental state is a totally different entity where it can be programmed to as lively and as young as possible.

If we want to reinvent our life successfully, we must first have a right mindset that getting old physically is just a physical process while the mind could be young at whatever age we want to position it. Have you ever wonder why sometimes we could be so happy remembering sweet memories of events happened some 20 or 30 years ago? It is because we choose be happy at that instant and we feel young at heart!

Our physical bodies will lose agility as we age, but our minds don’t have to lose a step. Our steps could be feeble and slow but our minds could be happy as ever if only we know how.

Physical health

In order to have a healthy body to welcome your middle age, the very simplest step to take is go for a complete medical check up. Our body is like a machine with moving parts. It is said that anything that moves needs maintenance. Your car needs an oil change every 5,000 or 10,000 km (of course depending on the make and specifications). Similarly we must love our body and it is essential to find out what could have went wrong or what could be wrong in years to come. However, this could only be revealed by a medical check up and consulting with your family doctor.

Of course it is beyond the scope for this blog to dwell into the details of physical health here. Nevertheless you have to take the necessary action or remedial actions with respect to your health status. Follow what your doctors say: live a healthy lifestyle by eating properly, exercise regularly, sleep sufficiently and cutting off completely or reduce the 3 habits which would make you age faster:

Smoking

Drinking alcohol

Sedentary lifestyle [From Wikipedia: Sedentary lifestyle is a medical term used to denote a type of lifestyle with no or irregular physical activity. A person who lives a sedentary lifestyle may colloquially be known as a couch potato. Sedentary activities include sitting, reading, watching television and computer use for much of the day with little or no vigorous physical exercise. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute to many preventable causes of death.]

All the above three habits are proven scientifically that will make you age faster and are causes of many preventable diseases.

In addition, the accompanying signs and symptoms of menopause (or andropause for men) for middle age will have some changes to your body and mind in general. This natural normal hormonal change can sometimes be a source of anxiety. It is best to seek medical advice or treatment if the need arises. Most important of all is to recognize that it is a natural process in which every man or woman will undergo during middle age, just like children entering puberty – a natural process.

An important aspect of health is how are you going to manage your sex life. Unless you choose to lead a life of celibacy, chances are you will need to “reinvent” your sex life in one way of another. Again, this is not a blog on this topic and readers are advised to get expert help from qualified personnel.

Relationship

By relationship here I mean your relationship with your life partner, spouse, family members, friends and people around you generally. One important factor when you are entering middle age is to decide how are you going to spend your time (there will more free time as you grow older) on a daily basis.

I have a couple of friends who are in their late 40s or early 50s who are still not married. I once asked them why don’t they get married. I never get a satisfactory answer from them or rather they never tell the truth. They are “rich” (own at least a house and car; earn enough to lead a comfortable married life), with a good career or business and handsome (or pretty) as well. They are the real “diamond bachelors” – precious but hard to own!

As we age into 40s, 50s or 60s, our love relationship may have gone through some ups and downs in many different ways.

If you are married, check whether you are as loving as before. For example, love your husband or wife more even if he or she is not perfect. Sometimes compromise is word of the day when conflicts (big or small) occur. Sacrifice might be another virtue you might want to practise more.

If you are dating, check whether it is time to tie the knots. Choosing a wrong life partner at this time could be more agonising. Simple question to ask is: am I really happy with this guy or gal I am dating?

If you enjoy being single, embrace it totally and there should not be anything wrong to be single. However do your planning as regards to your later life on matters like: who is going to take care of you in your end days or in the event of any unforeseen eventuality. You should be responsible for your actions in your own love life.

What about relationship with family members, friends and other people around you? My opinion is treat them as what you want to be treated by them. Relationship building is like a current account in your bank. You must put in money in order to withdraw when you need it. That means you must put in efforts to cultivate good relationship with all of them.

So far I have touched Account 1 and 2, the next blog will complete the accounts of mental and money aspects. Stay tuned……

Introduction

Why this topic? Let me begin with the following incident. My daughter was once teased by her classmates,”That man with white hair is your daddy or your grandfather?” Maybe her friends’ parents are much younger than I or do not have gray hair as I do.

Grandfather? OMB (Oh My Buddha; equivalent to OMG)! Am I that old? More than 50 or 60 that I qualify to be a grandfather? No, no, definitely not!

Much I wish to be younger but aging indeed is a biological process. If you are 40 now, you would be 50 years old ten years later and 60 twenty years later.

I did a definition search in Google for “middle age”. Here is the answer:

It means that middle age is a time between youth and old age (e.g. between 40 to 60 years of age). Of course there are some other definitions. For this blog let’s keep it to be from 40 to 60.

Why Reinvent Life After 40, 50, 60?

For most people, 40 to 60 is the “middle” age, assuming you are going to live up to 80 to 90 years old (based on the assumption you do not pass away earlier due to sickness or other causes). Life is like a big project where the first half is completed when you reach 40 or 50 years old.

It is time to do a “stock take” on various aspects of your life:

Physical health

Relationship health

Mental or spiritual health

Financial health

These four aspects would determine you overall well being of your second half of your life if you take some serious efforts to plan and reinvent your life after 40/50/60!

Most of the time people would NOT think of their second half of their life when they are below 40 years old. Only when they start entering the 40s or 50s do they realize that it is a different ball game altogether when compared to when they are younger.

Being a big project, as the owner of the project don’t you think you should do a complete stock take of your first half of your life, in order to live a better and more fulfilling second half of your life?

How to reinvent life?

In my opinion, you have to divide your life into four accounts, i.e.

Account 1 – physical health

Account 2 – relationship

Account 3 – mental/spiritual being

Account 4 – actual money in your bank

Each account is important and I am going to discuss that in the next blog post.

I was told by many of my friends from Facebook and Twitter that they are useful tips to use Google search engine more effectively. Today I am to blog about another 5 obscure search tricks not commonly used by ordinary web user. This will make it a total of 10 good search tips. What are they?

1. Google as flight announcer

This is particularly useful for frequent travellers who want to know the flight time of departure and arrival of any airline. Just type airline and flight number in the Google search box. It is that simple.

=========================================================

2. Google as specific document searcher

If you want to search certain documents on specific format (file type like pdf, doc, xps, xls, ppt etc.), use this method topic or keyword filetype:pdf for example.

If you want to search PowerPoint presentation on “blogging”. Then type in blogging filetype:pps

3. Google as a site search

A lot of times you are only interested to search for certain keywords or topics on a particular web site and not others. Use this method: keyword site:www.yoursite.com. For example if you are searching for 7 habits in this website, the results returned are like this.

4. Google as number range search

This is a very cool search trick. And this is how it works: just add two numbers, separated by two periods (with no spaces) into the search box with your search keywords. Number range can be anything from year, unit of measurement, currency as you like.

If you type

Olympics 1980..1990

Google will return information about Olympics from 1980 to 1990

5. Google as research tool on a particular website

For students or researchers who wish to find out more information about a particular website such as to collect data for a citation or verify your information you may type info: followed by the domain, like this: info:tehtarikkaki.com

In the above example, Google can show you following information for this website:

All you have to do is to click to the relevant pages as you do your research.

My two cents

With this I have given you my top 10 hidden Google search tricks. There are a lot more complicated search tools, tips and commands from Google if you care to do some research. Do share these with your friends and relatives during your teh tarik or yum cha sessions. Send me your comments or do you have any fantastic search tricks to share with all of us?